Aston Martin — one of the greatest names in motoring history but also one which has flirted with bankruptcy more times than a Premiership football club with a penchant for big names and bad results.

During the 1970s the situation was particularly bad and the company needed cash fast.

So what did it do to save itself? Almost in defiance of its parlous position, it brought out the most radical and expensive car ever and proceeded to build it at the pace of a geriatric snail with a hangover.

The Lagonda was cutting edge. In fact its edges were so sharp that you could literally cut yourself. The designer, William Towns, started with a flat piece of paper, folded it a bit and then ironed it to get rid of all the creases.

The result was the wedge to end all wedges – thinner than the foil you pulled out and threw away from your packet of John Player Specials.

Careful attention was paid to matters such as economy in the light of the 1970s energy crisis – Aston’s humungous V8 was shoehorned under the bonnet and consumption was measured in gallons to the mile. But the engine was the only old bit of this vast lump. Inside were myriad computers and cutting edge kit with the piece de resistance being the world’s first digital dashboard.

Always careful of the cash, Aston ensured the bill for the electronics alone was four times the entire development cost of the rest of the car.

And the trouble was, being 1976 when Bill Gates was still fiddling with bits of copper wire, none of it actually worked, which left a car that looked like it had flown in from outer space yet wasn’t capable of a sensible journey down the M40.

Decadent, irresponsible and totally unreliable, the car summed up Aston’s attitude at the time. Goodness knows how the company survived to this day.

The Lagonda survived 13 years largely on the back of sales to sheikhs who fell for it being one of the most expensive cars in the world and assumed it must be good.

Still, at least they had enough oil not to care. And who needs a digital dashboard in the desert anyway?